Where is Neturei Karta?

formerly from Melbourne, reporting from Jerusalem

I attended a mass funeral in Jerusalem last week. The remains of a number of Jews were layed to rest; I couldn't tell how many. The funeral procession began at the Sanhedria Chevra Kadisha near the tombs of the Sanhedrin and proceeded to the municipal cemetery at Har HaMenuchot. There were a few photographers and TV cameras present.

You hadn't heard?

Not far from Sanhedria, the Har HaZofim campus of the Hebrew University lies atop Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. It is a pretty campus; I happened to visit there last week. As well as Jews, many Arab students get their degrees there. Arabs are so prominent on campus that Hebrew U (know in Hebrew as Ha'Universita Ha'Ivrit) could be called Arab U (Ha'Universita Ha'Arvit), which only requires the swapping of two letters.

The Arab neighborhood of Issouwiyeh is adjacent to the campus, on the northern slope of Mount Scopus. Issouwiyeh is home to many Arabs who are citizens of the State of Israel. Some are innocent citizens, others are dangerous Jew-haters and murderers. The bomb that blew up the bus stop outside the university gates came from there. So did the bomb that killed nine people in the university cafeteria a few years ago. Issouwiyeh provides convenient refuge for such murderers.

When bombs kill people, ZAKA arrives. ZAKA stands for Zihuy Korbanot Asson (Disaster Victims Identification). ZAKA is manned by Charedi volunteers; you've seen these pious Jews on TV. They are the ones who arrive immediately at the scenes of terrorist attacks to mop up. They don't use mops; their sacred work involves painstakingly collecting every single human body part at the scene of the attack so that everything gets a decent burial, in accordance with Jewish law. Even the individual leaves in the bushes are wiped clean so that every possible drop of blood is buried with dignity.

As "peace" breaks out in the Middle East, some Issouwiyeh residents have discovered a new and profitable enterprise. They dig up old Jewish graves and sell the artifacts they find within to unscrupulous antiquities dealers. There are ancient graves - going back centuries and millenia - throughout the city of Jerusalem and in the surrounding hills. The Israeli authorities are aware of this plundering but have difficulty in stopping it.

Now these grave robbers have leveraged their enterprise further: they take the bones, as well, and then ransom the bones back to the Jews, knowing the sacred significance that Jews hold for proper burial. (Kidnapping involves live people; body-snatching involves dead people. Stealing bones would seem to be a new Arab invention, not yet named.) Not satisfied with displacing real-live Jews from Israel, the Arabs also aspire to displace the dead Jews, as well. Following Arab ransom demands, some of these stolen bones were handed over to ZAKA.

It was these bones that ZAKA layed to rest this week in Jerusalem, some of them dating back centuries.

I dearly hope that last week's mass funeral will be the last mass funeral I ever attend.